


Vinny prepares

by youcouldmakealife



Series: Vinny gets a life [23]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 11:58:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5247443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We need to talk,” Thomas says.</p><p>Anton smiles weakly. “You sound like you’re breaking up with me, bud,” he says.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vinny prepares

After he hangs up with Fourns Thomas goes to find Anton. It doesn’t exactly take very long — Anton’s sitting on the top step of the stairs, only a few steps away from Thomas’ room. He may have gone away when Thomas told him to, but he didn’t go far.

Anton scrambles up when Thomas opens the door. “Look Vin,” he starts.

“We need to talk,” Thomas says.

Anton smiles weakly. “You sound like you’re breaking up with me, bud,” he says.

Thomas doesn’t smile back, and after a second the smile drops off Anton’s face.

“You were right,” Thomas says.

“Vin, I already said I wasn—” Anton starts.

“You were,” Thomas says over him. “I obviously rely on you too much, and that’s not fair, so.”

“You don’t,” Anton says. “It’s totally fine, I was just pissed, you know I didn’t mean it.”

“It’s not, though,” Thomas says. “It’s not fine with you, and I’m okay living alone, but only when I’m actually living alone.”

“What’re you saying, here?” Anton says.

“I should move out,” Thomas says.

“What?” Anton says, then, “this is stupid, you —”

“You’re never here, and when you are you’re glaring at me for daring to invite people to somewhere _we’re_ supposed to live,” Thomas says, voice rising until the end of the sentence is more of a shout. He swallows. “I’m. I should go. I’ll talk to you about this later.”

Anton reaches out, and Thomas flinches back before he can touch him. “We’re talking about this now,” Anton snaps back.

“No,” Thomas says. “Because I don’t like you very much right now, so I’m going to say something I’ll regret.”

Anton flinches like Thomas had reached for him instead.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Thomas says.

He doesn’t have a bag or anything, but he’s got his phone and his wallet and his keys in his pants, and there’s a Pharmaprix not far. He drives to it, has to sit in the parking lot for awhile, do the square thing Fourns taught him. When he feels like he can actually go to a public place without losing it he texts Carmen with _r u home?_ , because he doesn’t really want to spend the night in a hotel room, he sees enough of them already. Maybe he could have asked Anton to go, since he’s always at his girlfriend’s anyway, but honestly, it’s Anton’s house. Thomas just lives — lived — there.

 _yep u cummin over?_ Carmen sends back, and then a winky face.

 _if thats ok_ , Thomas sends back, and smiles faintly when he immediately receives a _duh_ in response.

Thomas picks up a few things, a toothbrush, deodorant and his favourite toothpaste. There’s a girl around his age that gives him a long look like she’s trying to place him, but no one comes over to ask for pictures or an autograph or anything, which he’s grateful for.

“What’s the plan?” Carmen asks, when Thomas reaches his place “I have to meet—” he stops, frowning. “Shit, Vinny, you okay?”

“Um,” Thomas says. “I think I’m moving out? Can I—” he swallows. “Can I stay here tonight?”

“Of course,” Sandro says. “I was going to go out with the lady later, but I’ll cancel.”

“What?” Thomas says, frowning. “No. You can go out.”

“That would be like the shittiest hosting ever, no go,” Carmen says.

“Sandro,” Thomas says.

“Too late, texting her now,” Carmen says. “Teammate emergency.”

“It’s not an emergency,” Thomas says. “If you want I can go—”

“Shut up,” Carmen says. “We’re ordering dinner, and we’re watching a movie. Enjoy the Sandro date experience.”

Thomas wrinkles his nose. “She can come over,” he says. “Because I think she’d enjoy the Sandro date experience more.”

“Ingrate,” Carmen says. He does text her though, and spends the time after ordering dinner prodding Thomas for details so relentlessly it’s a relief when she arrives on the tail of delivery.

Sandro’s girlfriend Sylvie works for the Habs on their media team, and he was mercilessly teased by the entire room, first for his obvious crush, and then when they started dating until something Grayson said had him snap and yell at him. Everyone’s pretty much left him alone about it since, because he’s generally easygoing with the guys, and chirping’s one thing, but it’s a whole other thing to genuinely upset someone.

Thomas has always liked her. She’s more patient with them than anyone else in the crew, which she must be, if she’s dating Carmen, but she doesn’t take any of the shit some of the guys throw either. He likes her even more now, because she rolls her eyes at Carmen when he cracks jokes Thomas rolls his eyes at too, and she talks to Thomas in French for five minutes about the weather while Carmen gets increasingly agitated and first begs them to switch to English and then starts throwing spring rolls at them until they’re giggling too hard to keep going. She also changes the subject every time Sandro tries to pry about what’s going on with Anton like the gossip fiend they all know he is, as subtle as a bag of bricks.

They do watch a movie, and Sylvie and Sandro don’t do anything coupley to make him feel like he’s a third wheel. They are cuddling, a little, but then, Sandro plops his feet in Thomas’ lap halfway through, so it’s not like Thomas is the odd man out there.

Thomas tries not to think about things, and he succeeds through dinner, the movie, ignoring his phone when it buzzes, because he doesn’t want to deal with it. It’s just when he’s bunking down in Carmen’s guest room, an extra set of clothes for the morning sitting on the foot of the bed, which Carms must’ve done when he went for a bathroom break, that he can’t avoid it.

He’s got missed texts from Anton, and one from Chloe, which he opens first, to find a string of hearts and nothing else. He sends the hearts back and hesitates before he thumbs the conversation string with Anton open. The first he’s already said, _i’m sorry_ , along with the second, _u kno i didn’t mean it_. The third’s a _come home and talk to me about this_ , and Thomas can almost hear the exasperated voice Anton would use. It’s the fourth, _i’ll break up with her if u want_ , that hits Thomas low, like a blow, that he doesn’t know how to deal with.

He honestly doesn’t know what’s more upsetting — that Anton’s offering, or that Thomas really wants to tell him to. He doesn’t do it, of course he doesn’t, it’s meanspirited and petty and unfair to her, almost as bad as the voice in his head that says, snidely, that if Anton really liked her he obviously wouldn’t offer, so it’d be better for her anyway. That’s not a voice he should be listening to.

Thomas has never been, well, ‘normal’, whatever that’s supposed to mean, and guys tease Anton for being grumpy and antisocial enough that Thomas knows Anton wouldn’t be considered normal either, but he’s pretty sure that offering to break up with your girlfriend because your friend misses you isn’t normal at all, is weird and codependent and exactly the point Thomas made, that he’s needy and Tony humours him even when he shouldn’t, and that it isn’t fair to him at all.

He doesn’t respond, because he doesn’t think texting’s the best idea for this conversation, instead rehearses in his head, over and over, all the ways to say that he isn’t ditching Anton, that it’s better for both of them, all the ways to rationally explain things without adding the fact that he’s kind of in love with Tony and living with him is making him completely miserable and making Anton act like a possessive psycho, and that the worst part of all of that is that Thomas almost likes it, sometimes, because it makes him think that maybe something’s there. But it isn’t, and not telling Anton how he’s feeling is, he’s pretty sure, kind of a betrayal, letting Anton think they’re bros and then getting things from it that Anton doesn’t, it’s breaking Anton’s trust, and it’s making Thomas miserable, and Thomas needs to stop things before they get even more out of control.

He practices it in his head until he thinks he could recite it even through panic, and pretends that he isn’t using it as a mantra in order to distract himself from his biggest urge, which is answering Anton’s text with, _please_ , because he isn’t that guy, he never wants to be that guy who puts himself before the people he loves.

By the time Sandro pops his head in that morning Thomas has snatched a couple hours of sleep and the words in his head have practically been carved in. 

“Breakfast,” he says, then, “Whoa Vinster, you look awful.”

“You’re an ass,” Sylvie calls from down the hall.

“Sorry,” Carmen says. “Um. You look good?”

Thomas snorts. “Good save, Carms,” he says.

“Hey, I try,” Sandro says. “But uh. Yeah, sorry. Breakfast? Or if you want to wallow in bed that’s cool too.”

Thomas does kind of want to wallow in bed, and he wants to hide at Sandro’s until he feels a little less like he’s going to hyperventilate the first time he sees Tony and accidentally tell him everything, but he wasn’t raised that way, to hide from his responsibilities, even if they scared him.

“I’m up,” Thomas says, sitting, and Carmen flashes him a thumbs up and shuts the door behind him. 

He’s got another text flashing on his phone, and he sighs and opens it. _srsly can u talk 2 me?_ was sent from Anton an hour ago, and Thomas bites his lip, sends a response, _we’ll talk today_ , and hates that it sounds like a threat, but honestly right now it’s all he can offer.


End file.
